In case packing apparatus, it will be understood that large numbers of articles must be grouped and packaged quite rapidly by a mechanism that will function dependably without injury to the articles processed. In these packaging operations, normally streams of articles to be packaged are fed towards a loading station and, in one type of knbwn apparatus, the articles are formed into groups and are picked up as case filling groups by gripper means carried by an orbital article handling conveyor and are transferred to a case loading station where the article gripper means release and the articles are droppedinto empty cases which are fed to an operative position in association with the fixed orbit of the article handling conveyor. The article handling conveyor orbits in a vertical plane and has groups of dependent gripper means provided at longitudinally spaced portions of the drive conveyor for engaging groups of the articles to be packaged. The apparatus supplies, at a lower case filling station, empty cases and the driven conveyor moves the articles down to deposit the groups of articles into the positioned case after which the gripper means and conveyor move through the remainder of the orbit; a new case is brought into position for filling by articles carried by the next downstream group of gripper means etc.
One case unloading apparatus similar to that of the present invention is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,967. The present invention relates, in contrast, solely to a case loading apparatus and the apparatus is similar to that of the aforementioned patent except that it operates in one direction and is more like the apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,057 which is on a case loader. However, in some instances the apparatus shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,057 may have difficulty with accurately centering the articles to be packaged in the receiving recesses or spaces provided in the empty cases. It will be understood that the case and articles to be packaged are moving along at equivalent horizontal speeds as the articles are lowered into the cases for deposit therein. As the apparatus is functioning quite rapidly, say at the speed of approximately 20 or more cases per minute, it is important that the articles to be packaged be very accurately ]ocated in relation to the control or feed conveyor and to the case.
Quite a few article casers have been made using the bottle gripping devices as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,621. These bottle gripping devices have worked quite effectively in article uncasing actions. However, it has been noted that a more accurate positioning of the articles so that the engagement of the article grippers with the upper end of the articles, such as bottles, would facilitate case packing action where the larger diameter bottom end of the article must be accurately located openings provided in the case separator member positioned in the empty case. Also, in some instances the article gripper jaws as shown in such patent, in extending laterally beyond the main carrier frame of the gripper jaw, might interfere with the action of the other gripper jaws laterally adjacent each other.